GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) - BMW plans a $17 million research center to help the company reach a goal to increase the amount of North American materials in its cars made here, company officials say.

The center will facilitate joint research between the Greer plant and its North American suppliers, said company spokesman Bobby Hitt said. It will also be used to test cars made in the U.S., Hitt said. It should open by 2006.

"It strengthens the partnership between us and our suppliers and should increase the American content of our cars," Hitt said.

The development and testing center is the second research facility that the company has pledged to build in the Upstate in less than three weeks. BMW said it would build a research center focused on information technology in the automotive research park that Clemson University is developing in Greenville.

The center, combined with the research center BMW plans for the Clemson campus, should "make the Upstate area more attractive to our suppliers," and their research and development operations, Hitt said.

BMW wants the state to pay for the construction of both facilities and to equip the Greer center, as part of a $103.5 million incentives package the company has requested in exchange for a $400 million, 400-worker expansion at its plant.

The state Legislature's Joint Bond Review Committee is scheduled to vote on the package Wednesday.

"Even though it sounds like a lot of money, these investments still have a positive payback to the state based upon the increase in taxes and the ripple effect of investment and jobs in the economy," Commerce Secretary Bob Faith said Monday.

In addition to the research centers, the money would pay for road improvements, including a new Interstate 85 interchange next to BMW's plant, and a building to house a graduate school of automotive engineering that Clemson plans at the research park, according to documents the state Commerce Department supplied to members of the bond review committee.

The money would also pay for 55 acres at the former TNS Mills Inc. site, but Hitt nor state officials would say what the land will be used for.

Information from: The Greenville News